What is the most important part of the poem? the title, the form, the rhyme scheme? The title certainly has to grab your attention, are we more likely to read a poem called  A Martian Send a postcard Home ( Craig Raine) or Summer Sun for example? (apologies to anyone who has written a poem titled this..)

Once you’ve been grabbed by the title, you then read the first line and this is where the hard work of the poet begins because the first line has to hook you into reading the rest of the poem. If you’re not hooked you won’t read on and if you’re submitting poems to busy editors, the title and the first line is maybe all they’ll read, so it has a lot of work to do to make you have to stand out from the crowd.

So what are some fantastic first lines?

‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers – Emily Dickinson

‘Shit are we lost?’ – Debora Lidov, The Drama of the Gifted Hansel.

Wench, yowm the colour of ower town:  – Liz Berry Birmingham Roller

Do not go gentle into that good night – Dylan Thomas

I took God with me to the sheep fair– Kerry Hardie, Sheep Fair Day

They’re all amazing in different ways, some jump straight into the action, some take you by the hand and lead you on, some express something in a way you’ve not thought of before and some set the tone or voice of the poem very firmly as in Liz Berry’s Black Country dialect.

Above all though, they press our curiosity button and make us want to read on.